Overview During 1998 religious groups worked to resolve contentious issues involving the Protestant Reformation and the Holocaust. Advocates of the rights of homosexuals, including same-sex marriages, challenged the policies of several churches. Christian women staged rallies to celebrate their faith, and a major denomination stirred debate with a statement on husband-wife relations. In addition, the U.S. Congress worked on bills to strengthen religious freedom both at home and around the world. (For figures on adherents of all religions by continent and on adherents in the U.S., see below.) In June the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Vatican approved a "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification," expressing common views on a subject that was a major source of conflict during the 16th-century Reformation. Although the declaration reflected a consensus that salvation is a free gift of God and cannot be earned by good works, and the LWF’s Council voted to lift the...